As the economy improves, recruiting teachers is becoming increasingly challenging for Teach for America.
The idea for Teach for America, which matches college graduates with hard-to-fill teaching vacancies, came out of the senior thesis of Wendy Kopp ’89.
An increasingly political conversation around public education has led to a decrease in interest for the profession, particularly for people who may have once had more idealistic expectations, Becky O’Neill ’07, senior managing director of communications for Teach for America, said.
“At schools like Princeton with such competitive candidates, students are getting offers often and early from lots of great companies,” O’Neill said, adding that her group usually reaches out to individual students for recruitment based on recommendations from professors, career services offices, campus staff, student leaders, current corps members and alumni.
“This year, we had 17 Princeton alums join the TFA corps," she said. "This put Princeton on the list of top 20 contributors to the corps among medium-sized schools.”
Recently, TFA held a series of events on campusto garner student interest, and other events are planned until the application deadline in March.
"In the short run, we are one additional stream of people who are willing to go above and beyond traditional expectations to meet the extra needs of the kids and make up for the weaknesses in the system," Kopp said in a Q & A with The Daily Princetonian last week. "We are certainly not the only source of these teachers. There are so many other committed teachers in the community where we work."
During a post-lecture reception last week, 60 students spoke with Kopp about her establishment of the organization and the challenges it currently faces. The New York Times recently reported the organization has now seen falling applications for the second year in a row.
“The need for great teachers and committed leaders working for equity is very pressing. We’re working to make sure we get in front of students as soon as possible and we’ve been excited to see a steady increase in interest in our program this year,” noted O’Neill.
Francesco Di Caprio ’17, whose sister joined AmeriCorps last year after graduating from Princeton, said that though he believes the mission of TFA to be well-intentioned, the non-committal nature of its volunteers hinders the organization’s social impact.
“My sister is working in a middle school in Denver now," Di Caprio said. "She said that what’s different with TFA is that they are sending kids fresh out of college to poor classes. You really need the best teachers in the country to teach classes like that. Getting a few college students with no prior experience to teach for a year or two doesn’t really help."
Nancy Wu ’18, on the other hand, said she will consider volunteering for TFA, as she said she can see the advantages the organization brings to communities in need.
“I like the idea that they are trying to help the community," Wu said. "I was a volunteer tutor throughout high school for the National Honor Society and for elementary school students. But one disadvantage is that this may just be something fluffy for people to pad their résumés."
Tiffany Miller ’17, a potential politics major, said she believes that TFA may help her find some direction in life.
“I don’t know too much about this organization, but I think it’ll help me find what I want to do better,” she said.
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